Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Mechanic
Vactrain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evacuated tube transportation technology.
A ride in a 0 atmosphere tube after being fired by a magnetic rail gun, slowly enough to keep you from disintegrating on your way to 5000 MPH.
regards
Mech
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I've always thought it would be quite efficient to send satellites to space using an evacuated tube and rail gun. I just don't know what kind of heat shield would be needed for when the craft exits the tube, or if the sudden impact of hitting 1atm at ~20,000mi/hr would pulverize everything. Build this gun on top of a tall mountain near the equator and you can cut it down to 0.5atm and reduce the required velocity.